FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to mixing power laser apparatus, of the type comprising an excited nitrogen flow generator with means to introduce a flow of CO.sub.2 (carbon dioxide) into the excited nitrogen flow, downstream of the generator.
A mixing CO.sub.2 laser apparatus of this type is described in the article "High Power CO.sub.2 Electric Discharge Mixing Laser" by C. O. Brown in Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 17, No. 9, November, 1970. Although such EDM lasers were disclosed some time ago, they have not been the subject of industrial development, particularly because of their operation at very low pressure, the poor choice of generators of the excited type and the recommended use of helium. On the other hand, CO.sub.2 power lasers, in general, have had rather restricted use on an industrial scale because of their high cost and their insufficient reliability, essentially as to the optical components but also because of problems of loss, and furthermore because there exist no optical fibers adapted to transmit high power at the wavelength of 10 microns of these lasers.